I’ve discussed the demise of the brick and mortar book stores a couple of times on this blog along with the lawsuits regarding price gouging in the world of eBook publishing.

Barnes & Noble didn’t do well this year, including coming up short during the December sales. They are currently examining the reason for the shortfall but most people think Amazon is the cause along with the economy and necessities versus nice to have.

In 10 years the company plans to have about 450 to 500 retail stores, closing down as many as 20 stores per year over the next 10 years. This is down by 189 to 239 stores that exist today.

The company inked a partnership with Microsoft last year around its NOOK digital reader business and, unlike Border’s, isn’t planning to toss in the towel and believes their business model is sound. You’ve probably noticed that the store has upped the ante on selling merchandise other than books and has sections clearly marked to cater to early childhood development.

Sales of the NOOK eReader have also been down but will probably stabilize as long as they can keep the cost of eBooks down. The recent tax imposed on credit card purchases will likely impact even Amazon when it comes to online sales.

We all like choices, so keep up the good fight Barnes and Noble, Alibris, and Abe’s Books.

This is interesting. B & N and Books a Million (BAM) are the only brick and mortar book stores in our area. You’re probably right that the credit card tax in most of the states are going to put a stop to a lot of online sales. Did you notice that New York is among the states that aren’t going to enforce the tax?